


You Always Liked Unicorns

by VoyeuristicFacelessBeast



Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Adorable, Crowley isn't totally honest, Fluff, Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), M/M, Unicorns, aziraphale has good intentions, but it's cute, kinda sad, rigged games are no match for demons, they're at a fair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 17:06:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20177764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VoyeuristicFacelessBeast/pseuds/VoyeuristicFacelessBeast
Summary: The Ineffable Husbands have a lot of time on their hands post the apoca-wasn't, and Aziraphale wants to cheer up a tired and exhausted Crowley with his favorite animal. The unfortunate part is, Crowley's favorite animal has been extinct for several millennia. A silly solution occurs, and brings up unexpected memories to the fallen one.





	You Always Liked Unicorns

“Oh come on, what are we doing here?” Crowley hissed in irritation. He wasn’t a fan of when Aziraphale dragged him places without any sort of explanation, and he was currently being dragged to some human event in the park. Since averting the apocalypse they had to come up with new ways of entertaining themselves, and it had lead to enjoying quite a bit of the modern marvels of the last decade that had been ignored in favour of grooming (who they thought was) the AntiChrist.

“I have a surprise for you.” Aziraphale chided smugly, walking primly beside the Demon. As they neared the park the growing sight made Crowley’s lip curl. Lots of humans walking around with their children, among colorful tents and decorations. There were food stands that Aziraphale would surely delight in, and stands with rigged games that children were foolishly attempting in order to win cheap stuffed toys that would fall apart if looked at too hard.

“A fair?” Crowley asked dryly, his eyes rolling behind his dark shades. “Aziraphale I haven’t been to one of these since-”

“It’s been about a hundred years or so.” Aziraphale interrupted brightly. “Back then these were used to exploit those differently abled than the main populace, but humans have learned a bit more compassion since then. Now it’s mostly just food, games, maybe a ride or two.” He looked cheerfully around, gravitating towards a funnel cake stand. Crowley glumly followed, uninterested as the Angel ordered his with everything on it and was quickly handed a piping-hot plate of the lacy treat, covered in powdered sugar and strawberries.

“Surprised you got that. It’ll get on your coat.” Crowley remarked, walking slowly beside his Angel as he dug into the treat with a fork.

“Not if I’m careful.” Aziraphale replied, cutting his eyes over at Crowley. The Demon didn’t seem in the mood for the goofy goings-ons of the humans, but he hoped his small surprise would at least entertain him. He was just trying to get them back into socializing among the locals again, it was at least something to _do_” “Why don’t you play one of the games? Those are always fun!”

“They’re all rigged, y’know.” Crowley snarked, glancing at Aziraphale over his glasses with an arched brow. Aziraphale kept that small, warm smile on his face as his mouth closed on a bite of the dessert.

“That’s part of the fun.” He responded, chewing primly. Crowley rolled his eyes.

“Says the Angel that enjoys ‘human magic’.” Crowley grumbled, but suffered to walk up to one of the game stands. It was the one with the rings, you were supposed to toss them over the bottles. This one wasn’t rigged so much as it was unfair. He laid down money he conjured into his hand, and as the five rings were handed to him his suspicions were confirmed. Fingers lightly traced the ring, feeling that it was certainly larger than the neck of the bottles in front of him, but only slightly. Enough to give you hope, but not enough to create a fair game. He glanced at Aziraphale who gestured encouragingly, before he tossed a ring at the collection of colored bottles in front of him.

Before it left his hand it was slightly wider than it previously was, of course. It landed on a bottle easily. He proceeded to easily land every ring, causing the stand tender to clap her hands.

“You’re very good at this! Wow! You can pick from one of the large prizes, if you’d like.” She said with a beaming smile. It was early in the day and she was an extremely young human, the hope hadn’t been wrung from her yet. Crowley pointed to a large purple creature that looked vaguely cat-like, taking it under his arm before looking at Aziraphale’s disapproving face. The exact expression he knew would be waiting for him.

“You’re no fun.” Aziraphale chided, padding beside Crowley as he turned to walk away. Crowley smirked. The Angel knew exactly what he had done.

“I’m lots of fun and you know it. Now, I’ve played one of your games, I _know_ you won’t want to go on any of the two tepid rides that are here, so can we leave? Please? I want a nap.” He whined, rubbing at his forehead with a free hand. Aziraphale pouted.

“Well, I was hoping you’d be more willing to indulge me here, but since you clearly are not in the mood, we’ll get to the surprise.” He said softly, tossing his paper plate into a bin. Crowley felt badly, admittedly. He just wasn’t in the mood to do much of anything but nap lately. The not-so-end of the world had been exhausting and he really just wanted to spend the time curled up in Aziraphale’s lap, soaking in the Angel’s company while he napped and Aziraphale read his books. He noticed he was being led to the edge of the fairgrounds, near a small fence where there appeared to be a petting zoo. There were docile, fluffy chickens, goats that walked up to you to be fed, a small minature cow taking a lazy nap, and some ducks that seemed more than eager to try and chase small children. Crowley chuckled at the ducks.

“So, what’s the surprise?” He asked, leaning towards Aziraphale with his eyebrows raised. The Angel had a beaming smile on his face. He’d always been fond of the strange domestication humans had commanded over certain animals. It made them docile and sweet. Crowley thought it was a strange, warped interpretation of what the Almighty had originally intended. Of course the surprise would have something to do with them. Crowley himself, he missed the creatures that once roamed this planet. Some of the original ones to walk the Earth when God first started playing her game. He had the vaguest of memories from his time before falling - they were mostly torn from you, in particular your name - and he remembered, like a dream that dissolved too quickly, helping mold a few of those creatures with God. He imagined it was like when you have a hint of a memory from helping a parent make something when you were very small, if you were a human. Of the ones he could remember, all but a few were gone, and all that were gone had been his favorites.

“So, I recalled you telling me about your favorite creatures of yore.” Aziraphale started, very clearly proud of himself. Yes, Crowley had mentioned a few of them, though never mentioned that he remembered helping sculpt them. It hurt to think of how closely he once worked with the Almighty and how easily he had been thrown away.

“And? They all died several thousand years ago.” Crowley responded dryly, watching a white goat walk to the fence where they stood. Aziraphale affectionately reached out a palm, suddenly full of food, and allowed the creature to nibble from his hand. He stroked it’s neck with the other, smiling.

“Well, humans are delightful and come up with some adorable solutions, and I _knew_ you would need to see it.” The Angel said, his bright hazel eyes turning up to Crowley. Crowley knew this was going to be terrible at best.

“Fine, right, show me then.” He replied dismissively, watching as the goat finished the food, then proceeded to follow alongside it’s side of the fence, bleating at Aziraphale for more. They entered the fence and more animals came to them, sniffing and nudging, looking for food and affection. Crowley pulled the over-large stuffed animal higher into his arms, trying to avoid it receiving an unwanted nibble.

Soon, at the other end of the relatively large pen, he noticed exactly what Aziraphale meant, and he groaned loudly.

“Oh, no, not _that_. Aziraphale!” He whined, letting his head fall back. Aziraphale just laughed at him, his face lighting up joyously.

“It’s a unicorn!” He said proudly, gesturing at what was clearly a pony decorated to look like what humans assumed unicorns looked like. In reality, the unicorns Crowley had created looked a little more like a delicate goat with a glistening horn, a lion’s tail, piercing eyes and a shimmering coat in pastels. That’s not what _his_ unicorns looked like, he remembered that much. He couldn’t fault humans too much, though, because by the time unicorns went extinct they didn’t look like his creation, humans had made them much larger and more stupid to use them for exhibition. So this was still not entirely inaccurate.

“That is _not_ a unicorn.” Crowley said dryly, seeing the white and brown painted pony notice him and walk slowly forward. It’s long eyelashes masked big, watery brown eyes, and it sniffed at Crowley’s arm curiously.

“Look, it likes you.” Aziraphale said brightly, hands clutched together in front of him with satisfaction. Crowley curled his lip a little, then raised a hand to let the pony sniff and subsequently lip at his fingers. She - because he knew it was a she - was warm and smelled earthy. It was a comforting smell, in a strange way. He started his new life from the Earth. He didn’t let on to it much, but he felt a strong affinity towards animals, probably because he had started as one himself. She wore a pale cream bridle, that had a bit that stretched across the forehead for a small, plastic horn to imitate a unicorn. Her mane had been slightly tinted with some pink dye in the white parts. Fine. She was cute.

She nuzzled his hand affectionately as if she knew him. Crowley’s eyes flicked to Aziraphale, who was watching with a smug smile. He chose to ignore it and shoved the stuffed animal at him so he could indulge a bit and pet the ‘unicorn’. She stood calmly, eyes closing, relaxed.

“You know, you were fine the way you were.” Crowley crooned softly, pretending that Aziraphale wasn’t within earshot. “I don’t get why humans feel the need to dress you up and make you something you’re not.” He reached to rub her neck, smiling. Okay, so she wasn’t _really_ a unicorn, but maybe in a long string of successions of reincarnation they had actually stumbled across what was once one. She felt familiar. There was no way Aziraphale _knew_ that though. Her watery eyes opened again, regarding him in that way that animals did. Crowley smiled broadly, patting her side gently.

They actually stayed for quite a while, Aziraphale watched Crowley with equal parts joy and smugness as he interacted with the pony. By the time they left, Crowley was quiet, not speaking, only reaching down to hold Aziraphale’s hand. There was a comfortable silence all the way to the Bentley, only broken once they sat down inside the car.

“So? The Angel asked, looking at Crowley warmly. Crowley scoffed a little, looking away.

“It was nice, actually.” He mumbled, gripping the steering wheel.

“You always said unicorns were your favorite.” Aziraphale replied, in a playfully teasing tone. Crowley nodded.

“I dd, and they are.” He looked to the Angel, and said sincerely: “Thank you.”

Aziraphale smiled, settling back into the seat as he prepared for the drive. He knew was Crowley liked, even if he wouldn’t admit it at first.

What Aziraphale didn’t know, was that for just one brief moment, Crowley felt a little closer to Heaven. He was blessed with more fleeting memories of that time, of setting his creation out into the world. That beautiful creature, elusive, delicate in appearance but deceptively tough. A cloven-hooved animal that could hold it’s own against a predator. A creation he didn’t have to worry about. God telling him he had done well, the warm regard of pleasing a parental figure. The longer he lived the more memories he managed to catch in the ash of his Angelic times, the better he was able to process the terrible sadness he had when he discovered the creatures had gone extinct for good. The pony was not a unicorn, but deep down, he chose to believe that maybe she was. In that time with the equine, he had flashes of himself, bright flaming hair draped over long, flowing robes, several wings curled delicately as he lovingly sculpted the ceature.

Once they had returned to his flat, somewhere they had been staying more often lately, he sat tiredly on the couch, watching Aziraphale work at making himself cocoa.  
“Aziraphale?” Crowley asked tiredly as the Angel sat next to him.

“Yes, dear?” Aziraphale asked, sipping the drink. Crowley laid down, laying his head in Aziraphale’s lap tiredly, snuggling down against the Angel.

“Thank you. You’re right, unicorns have always been my favorite.”

Aziraphale smiled, gently stroking Crowley’s hair with one hand as the snake fell asleep, contented.


End file.
